For remarkable contributions to the field of Snapeology...

[vulgarweed]

The Harry Potter for Grownups list is so high-traffic I can't always keep up with it, but one thing that always pricks up my ears is when the topic of Severus Snape pops up, as it does often. Hardly anyone's neutral about this character. For such a nasty bastard, he has a huge fan-following (I'm a member, duh!) - and occasionally someone just has to stir the cauldron by asking why.

The ever-erudite Porphyria just posted an excellent theory I had never quite seen voiced in quite this way before, so I asked her permission to quote it here for further discussion.

For starters, my whole reply is predicated on the belief that, very often, people prefer characters with whom they identify. This can be positive or negative; we like characters who embody the characteristics we wish to have, and we feel deep empathy for characters who embody our own faults.

Well, I'm sure some people *hate* characters who embody their own faults, but I for one love them quite pathetically, and I know I'm not alone.

I would also like to add, re GulPlum's question about sexual fantasies, that infatuation with literary characters has *nothing to do* with sexual attraction in its simplest sense. These characters have no physical presence; they do not infect us with their pheromones or put the moves on us. They are only as attractive as we imagine them. Our impression of them is rooted purely in language, which means it is symbolic and analyzable.

Otherwise, we'd all have hopeless crushes on Gilderoy Lockhart, which does not seem to be the case. :-) Snape, in particular, *is supposed to be ugly, * so there must be something *else* going on with his legion of female crushers for them to feel as they do.

The following is only one theory among many for Snape's appeal, but I think it's worth giving a shot: Snape is the cast-off animus of an individual who has been socialized as female. OK, plain English: Snape appeals to some women because he is exactly what a woman cannot be if she is to be recognized as "feminine" in our society.

Let's consider Snape's depiction in the books. We know from some offhand remarks that Snape is considered brilliant in his field: Lupin's explanation of how difficult Wolfsbane Potion is to brew, Sirius's admission that Snape knew more curses as a child, etc. We also get the impression he's brilliant from his poetic, mannered speech, his pride in his craft and, via Real Life contamination, he reminds us of that type of professor who would much rather be researching than teaching. So, he strikes me as being the Potterverse equivalent of a brilliant scientist.

However, what is is we typically see Snape doing? He gets to teach 11 year olds Boil-Curing Potion *over and over and over.* He has to herd them from class to class when there is some danger in the castle. He has to keep them in line and break up fights. He has to babysit. He has to make sure they get medical treatment when they injure themselves, and protect them from their own recklessness. And, in what I think is one of the series' moments of pure comic genius, Snape has to play hyper-conscientious nursemaid to Lupin, someone he'd just as soon poison.

Now, being a grade school teacher, a caretaker and a nurse are all noble professions, but do they suit Snape's personality? No, they require patience, compassion, empathy and affection, all qualities he notably lacks. He is deeply unsuited for his job. Snape appears to despise little children and resents being stuck 'taking care of' people who need extra attention like Lupin, Harry or Neville. He doesn't seem to have a nurturing bone in his body. But he is protective and dutiful, and his job duties wrench appropriate behavior out of him as best as he can manage (which often isn't very well).

So my argument states that Snape appeals to *some* women who feel frustrated that society, their families, or life in general obliges them into a caretaker role when they privately feel that they are better suited for more intellectual work. Some of these women might reject caretaker roles for themselves, and others might be *extremely dutiful* mothers, teachers and nurses who simply feel the pressure to be compassionate and tender-hearted all the time. It's a heavy burden for anyone not 100% sweetness and light in the first place. But what if women actually acted like Snape! It's hardly an option for any of us who care about what our loved ones think of us. (If only the world were as accepting as Dumbledore!) So Snape is deliciously enjoyable because, as a literary character, he can get away with all the nastiness he wants and we can enjoy it vicariously without actually hurting anyone in the Real World.

So I think the reason that the vast majority of Snape's admirers are female is that he represents the vindictive, resentful flipside of the "female" role that is foreclosed to real women who feel obliged to appear "feminine" by typical cultural standards. I think this explains why some of Snape's fans are infatuated straight women, but also why some of his fans are lesbians. I also think this explains why some female readers *despise* Snape, because he constitutes an absolute scandal for someone entrusted with the role of rearing young people. (It's not a subject women typically feel neutral about.) And lastly, I think this explains why so few (to my knowledge) of Snape's fans are gay men, because (I imagine) they have a whole ton of other gender-role obligations to contend with, which have nothing to do with Snape's character. Same probably goes for straight men. :-)

Brilliant, Porphyria. Thank you!

I would add that the very fact of Snape's physical description in the books adds to this: as seen from Harry's POV, he's painted to be quite ugly and to have dubious personal hygiene habits. Women, far more than men, are judged on this basis constantly (by other women even more harshly than by men). How refreshing it would be sometimes to be kind of ugly and skanky and not have to care!

Oh there's more, much more, and this thread went on for a while in other interesting directions. What do all y'all think?

Comments

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

At the risk of repeating myself, I started out in LJ with a post about Severus' voice (in my writing, at least) being the part of myself who is not permitted to speak. *I* like teaching, so my Severus does as well, but he is someone far more suited to mentoring the gifted to whom he can relate, than to instilling knowledge into dunderheads just like the ones who bullied him once-upon. I do occasionally channel my Inner Snape in RL, to wit

Scene: School meeting with principal and teacher regarding an incident when a student with behavior issues threw a chair and hit my daughter.

Teacher dithers about how it is difficult to control a class with IEP students in it. (Which it is, BTW. Notice I did not say impossible.

Yours truly (raises eyebrow and purrs) "Well that IS why we have our professional skills , is it not, Ms ****?"

I should have swept off to the dungeons at that point.

[ellimayhem.livejournal.com]

I haven't read much fanfic, but I agree with the assessment of him. I think he is one of the most 3 dimensional and complex characters in the series.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

You know, I might be one of those rare women who's pretty neutral on the subject of child-rearing. I don't have kids, don't work with them, am not related to any that I know of (at least on this continent), don't know many people who have them IRL. They're just not a part of my daily (or monthly, or yearly) life at all, and that's fine. If I DID have to deal with them a lot, I'm pretty sure I'd be Snapish to the max. Not that I lack nurturing completely, but I have just about enough for my cats, my writing, and my adult friends going through bad patches.

I'm really glad Porphyria brought up the subject of identification. It's funny - my therapist reads my fanfic. She likes them as stories but she also, you know, reads them like a therapist, and she kind of missed the analytical boat with the Ravenous series by assuming too easily that my main POV character was Hermione. Well, yes and no. Snape's voice is just as comfortable and natural (and yes, liberating) for me to write in, and his viewpoint on various matters (particularly the "innocence"/"ignorance") conflation, is every bit as um...shared by the author.

I've always had a pretty close relationship with my animus, though. Why do so many lit-crit-101 types assume we always identify most with characters of the same gender? Not always true, not at all.

PS: Hello Helichrysm, dear!

[aspectacle.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I always thought Snape was a _great_ teacher, perfectly suited for his job--one of those teachers that students despise at the time, but come back twenty years later and thank, because they're the better for his ill-treatment. After Snape, everything else is easy; his students have to LEARN THEIR STUFF DAMMIT. His job is not to make the students feel loved, it's to turn them into wizards who can take care of themselves in situations when they won't get a second chance. I don't imagine that anybody's going to fail, say, Prof. Sprout's class, no matter how badly they screw up, but I'll also bet that Hogwarts has a rep for producing graduates who know their potions cold. (And he's not actually vicious; if pushed to the wall, he will always act in his students' best interest.)

I've also just been reading George Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys...," which is a completely chilling essay about being grateful years later for Snapean abuse.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I agree he probably does wind up being exactly the teacher some students need and deserve, and I'll bet you're right about Hogwarts producing whip-smart potions graduates, and certainly he does do the right thing when he absolutely must. But that kind of adds to the cosmic joke - there's no doubt in my mind he loathes it, and makes no attempt to hide it. That's where the original point holds: how liberating (from a feminine-acculturation point of view) not to have to _pretend you enjoy_ caretaking. Whether you're accidentally good at it in a tough-love kind of way,as Snape may well be, is irrelevant.